"The design for Wieden + Kennedy New York moves away from the office-as-playground to put work back at the heart of creative work," said WORKac, who have banished the kind of fashionably juvenile equipment found at the offices of Google, Microsoft and Lego.

The architects did however opt for a fashionable staircase-cum-seating-zone and included four categories of work areas in various sizes, ranging from 245 open office spaces to ten large communal spaces.

Meetings take place in phone booths and around picnic tables, as well as at more traditional conference rooms.

The offices occupy the sixth to eighth floors at 150 Varick Street. Each of these three levels is broken up by glass partitions, intended to create a sense of openness.

A round black reception desk sits beneath a graphic of the company name at the entrance.

The lower two storeys are connected by a circular wooden staircase that doubles as a seating area, while a spiral staircase with metal mesh banisters allows access to the smaller third floor.

The large holes in the floor plates created by these vertical links help to visually integrate the different levels.

Surfaces in the library on the top storey are lined with bamboo panelling, contrasting with the polished concrete floors that feature throughout most of the interior.

A covered terrace on the lower floor features wooden decking surrounded by planting, providing employees with outdoor space and views of the city.

Other facilities include a multipurpose gym, a kitchen and lounge areas, plus a bar next to the spiral staircase on the middle floor.

Renowned advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy has developed a global reputation for innovative work dating back to their early Nike campaigns in the 1980s. The agency’s Portland headquarters designed by Allied Works cemented Wieden+Kennedy’s position as a patron of architecture and continues to influence the design of their offices around the world.

WORKac's design for the agency's 50,000-square-foot New York office embraces urban density as its motto: a minimal compression of individual work spaces that opens up room for a gradient of diverse collective spaces.

The design for Wieden+Kennedy New York moves away from the office-as-playground to put work back at the heart of creative work. After a foray into the history of the workplace, research revealed that while advertising agencies have always been at the forefront of cutting-edge office design, no single workplace trend has replaced those that came before. Rather, the ways that people work have continued to evolve, layer and multiply.

Because work at Wieden+Kennedy is highly collaborative, WORKac designed the widest possible range of discussion spaces to accommodate meetings and gatherings of varying size, privacy levels, and duration. Teams can choose to hold quick reviews standing up at 10-foot-long "Over-The-Counter" blackened steel tables; have informal discussions in lounges with comfortable furniture and natural wood floors, raised to different levels to create a sense of privacy; or gather in the kitchens for working lunches.

More traditional meetings can be held in conference rooms that range in scale from smaller, intimate "Phonebooths," to "Picnic-Table" meeting rooms that accommodate up to 10 people to larger, formal "Wide-n-Long" conference rooms. Glass walls create a sense of lightness and transparency to the space. Clusters of these different meeting spaces are organized around groups of 20-25 people in open offices, featuring polished concrete floors.

A series of larger collective 'moments' are distributed vertically to serve as the connective tissue for the agency. These spaces open up views across the office through circular oculi that create the largest possible openings in the floor slab while minimizing structural impact. Connecting the 6th and 7th Floors, a circular-shaped, walnut-clad "Coin Stair" features bleacher seating that can accommodate office-wide meetings or informal discussions below a spider-shaped structure that transfers load from a removed column. On the 7th Floor, a white-tiled bar provides an opportunity for end-of-day office celebrations. Connecting the 7th and the 8th floors, a perforated metal spiral staircase leads to a generous bamboo-clad, library "den on the 8th floor.

To bring the outside in, a double-height space on the 6th and 7th floors is combined with the removal of the existing windows and a new interior storefront to create an outdoor park surrounded by blueberry bushes and visible from the street. Completely wired for power, music and wi-fi, employees can use the outdoor space to meet, eat lunch or even take a bi-weekly yoga class. On the 7th Floor, inside the office, a large, multi-purpose gym offers additional space for interaction and recreation. The space doubles as a 'black box' to accommodate the whole office for lectures or film screenings.

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2014/06/27/wieden-kennedy-offices-new-york-workac/feed/8Blaffer Art Museum renovation by WORKachttp://www.dezeen.com/2013/02/28/blaffer-art-museum-renovation-by-workac/
http://www.dezeen.com/2013/02/28/blaffer-art-museum-renovation-by-workac/#commentsThu, 28 Feb 2013 20:00:24 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=294670New York architecture studio WORKac has reorganised the galleries of the Blaffer Art Museum in Houston, Texas, by adding a glazed entrance pavilion in front (+ slideshow). Located on the campus of the University of Houston, the original 1970s building was planned with its entrance through an inner courtyard and it struggled to attract visitors. […]

New York architecture studio WORKac has reorganised the galleries of the Blaffer Art Museum in Houston, Texas, by adding a glazed entrance pavilion in front (+ slideshow).

Located on the campus of the University of Houston, the original 1970s building was planned with its entrance through an inner courtyard and it struggled to attract visitors. Another problem was that the two main gallery spaces were split apart by a central staircase and the route to a third trailed past the museum's administration areas.

WORKac attempted to solve both issues with one solution. The architects designed a glazed extension that would relocate all circulation to the facade, whilst also creating a glowing entrance foyer.

"[Our] design gives the museum striking presence and public connectivity through a series of imaginative and economical interventions to the building's facade, circulation patterns and exterior spaces," explain the architects.

The new pavilion has an asymmetric shape that frames and shelters the new entrance within a long triangular void.

A matching triangular wall thrusts out to one side of the opening, creating a signage board that appears to have swivelled into position. The architects call this the "wallumn", as a combination of wall and column.

Glass planks give the extension a variety of transparencies, so anyone passing can catch glimpses of the activities inside.

A new cafe is inserted beyond the galleries and opens out to a courtyard at the rear, which is set to be re-landscaped as the next stage in the refurbishment.

The Blaffer Art Museum reopened in autumn 2012 with an exhibition dedicated to American sculptor Tony Feher.

WORKac's dramatic new addition and renovation of the Blaffer Art Museum in Houston, Texas has opened to the public with a twenty-year survey dedicated to influential American sculptor Tony Feher.

Founded in 1973, the Blaffer Art Museum is a preeminent contemporary art museum without a permanent collection set in the midst of University of Houston's enormous central campus. With high-profile exhibitions that are free and open to the public, as well as extensive educational programs, the museum has the potential to act as a gateway between the university and the city.

However, its visibility and identity were previously hampered by the fact that its entrance was hidden and accessible only through an internal courtyard. Within, its galleries were excessively impacted by circulation, including a stairway in the middle of two galleries, and another gallery only accessible by a hallway through the administrative offices.

The project represents an important shift in the approach to museum design in the post-recession age. In order to concentrate only on their core missions, the Blaffer and the University of Houston engaged WORKac to strategically rethink the building's existing features. WORKac's design gives the museum striking presence and public connectivity through a series of imaginative and economical interventions to the building's facade, circulation patterns and exterior spaces.

To begin, WORKac opened the previously blank north side of the building with a new entrance pavilion. The projecting volume, clad with channel glass in a gradient of semi-transparent and translucent sections reveals a new grand staircase that reroutes all of the problematic circulation routes from the center of the building to the façade, providing street-level views of the museum's interior activities, while also allowing for the expansion and diversification of the museum's gallery spaces. A new entrance zone with a café becomes a commons area that connects the front pavilion with the back courtyard, allowing the public to freely move between city and campus via the museum.

Unable to afford a cantilever and reticent to simply support the projecting volume of the entry pavilion with a column, WORKac invented the "wallumn", a triangular concrete wall that acts as a column while graphically emphasizing the new entry condition. The existing rear courtyard will soon receive its own upgrade, to provide a flexible and dynamic setting for a continuous program of music, film screenings and other art-related events. New landscaping throughout the exterior area, conceived in partnership with SCAPE Landscape Architects, gives the museum an invigorated sense of place and adds to the rhythm and scale of the pedestrian experience.

The Blaffer Art Museum is WORKac's first commission in Texas and was completed in association with Gensler Houston as local architect, Matrix Structural Engineers, Shah Smith MEP Engineers and Wade Getz Civil Engineers.

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2013/02/28/blaffer-art-museum-renovation-by-workac/feed/10New Holland Island by WORKachttp://www.dezeen.com/2011/08/03/new-holland-island-by-work-ac/
http://www.dezeen.com/2011/08/03/new-holland-island-by-work-ac/#commentsWed, 03 Aug 2011 19:39:48 +0000http://www.dezeen.com/?p=144010New York architects WORKac have won a competition to design a cultural hub on a St Petersburg island that has been closed to the public for over 300 years. Former military warehouses occupy the eight-hectare New Holland Island and are to be fully restored to accommodate commercial spaces, galleries and educational facilities. An elevated snaking […]

The architectural practice WORKac is the winner of the competition to select a master planning consultant for the future development of New Holland Island in St Petersburg.

The competition, organised by The Architecture Foundation, invited entries from all over the world and an exhibition of proposals recently went on show at the Central Naval Museum in St Petersburg overlooking the New Holland site where it attracted 6,617 visitors within a two week period. Opinions left on comment cards filled out by the public at the exhibition overwhelmingly coincided with the views of the competition organisers in supporting WORKac’s vision.

Click above for larger image

Based in New York City, WORK Architecture Company (WORKac) is involved with numerous cultural institutions and urban planning projects. The practice were the master planners of the new BAM cultural district in Brooklyn and the award-winning architects of Diane von Furstenburg’s Headquarters in New York’s Meatpacking District. It is currently working on three major museum projects for the Blaffer Museum in Houston, the Clark Art Institute at Mass MoCA and the new Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York City. WORKac is also the winner of the Hua Qiang Bei redevelopment competition at the heart of Shenzhen, China. Identified by Icon magazine as one of the 25 most influential design firms in the world, the practice has won numerous honours and, in 2009, was among the finalists for the US National Design Awards.

Click above for larger image

New Holland is an 8-hectare island bordered by two canals and a river in the heart of St Petersburg, within 20-minutes walk of the Hermitage and the city’s other major cultural sites.

Click above for larger image

The island was conceived by Peter the Great in 1719, and became Russia’s first military port in 1721. It belonged to the military since its foundation and had thus been closed to the general public for 300 years.

Click above for larger image

WORKac’s winning entry creates a public park, whose topography transforms New Holland Island into an outdoor amphitheatre and performance space. An elevated promenade brings the park to the interior of the existing structures, connecting a series of programmatic ‘voids’ – art, design, education and commercial – that builds on St Petersburg’s rich cultural history to create a new vibrant cultural hub for the city.

Click above for larger image

WORKac principals Amale Andraos and Dan Wood said: “We are very excited at the opportunity to work with the Iris Foundation and NHD on this critically important project for one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Our master plan balances preservation with innovation, respecting St Petersburg’s past while paving the way for its continued artistic development and future.”

Click above for larger image

As the project moves from the concept phase to the planning phase, New Holland Development and the Iris Foundation plan to hold a series of closed and public discussions with interested parties to ensure that the public’s input continues to be a central part of New Holland’s development.

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2011/08/03/new-holland-island-by-work-ac/feed/4Public Farm One by Work Architecture Companyhttp://www.dezeen.com/2008/08/05/public-farm-one-by-work-architecture-company/
http://www.dezeen.com/2008/08/05/public-farm-one-by-work-architecture-company/#commentsTue, 05 Aug 2008 13:43:45 +0000http://www.dezeen.com/2008/08/05/public-farm-one-by-work-architecture-company/Public Farm One by Work Architecture Company is an urban farming project, shown outside the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Centre in New York last month. The temporary installation is an attempt to bring the qualities of the countryside into the city, by growing fruit and vegetables in large cardboard tubes above a communal area. Earlier this […]

Since its inception, PS1 has brought together, year after year, the best of summer fun with the latest and greatest in art, music and architectural experimentation.

While celebrating invention, the summer structures have provided the necessary shade, seating and water requirements - as well as spatially organizing PS1’s courtyard to create various zones of gathering and program. Every intervention has expanded upon the Warm-Up’s essential DNA (going back to Philip Johnson): the celebrated ‘Urban Beach.’

Throughout the twentieth century, ‘the beach’ has embodied popular dreams of pleasure and liberation. From the first labor paid holidays - which led to the beach’s invasions by blue and white striped bathing suits - to the famous slogan of May 1968 ‘Sous les Paves la Plage’, reaching the beach was synonymous with reclaiming a lost paradise.

This summer of 2008, exactly 40 years after ’68, it is time for a new leisure revolution! One that creates a symbol of liberation, knowledge, power and fun for today’s cities. Leaving behind the Urban Beach, our project becomes the ‘Urban Farm’ – a magical plot of rural delights inserted within the city grid that resonates with our generations’ preoccupations and hopes for a better and different future.

In our post-industrial age of information, customization and individual expression, the most exciting and promising developments are no longer those of mass production but of local interventions.

As cities have finally proven their superiority to their suburban counterparts – in everything from quality of life to environmental impact - they should again become our much needed laboratories of experimentation: opening our minds and senses towards better living with each other and the world.

Channeling the last utopian architectural projects about the City that examined its potential, represented its promises of liberation, and captured its pleasures – from Superstudio’s continuous monument to Koolhaas’s Exodus – Public Farm 1 (PF1) is an architectural and urban manifesto to engage play and reinvent our cities, and our world, once more.

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2008/08/05/public-farm-one-by-work-architecture-company/feed/7DVF Studio by Work Architecture Companyhttp://www.dezeen.com/2008/08/04/dvf-studio-by-work-ac/
http://www.dezeen.com/2008/08/04/dvf-studio-by-work-ac/#commentsMon, 04 Aug 2008 13:00:12 +0000http://www.dezeen.com/2008/08/04/dvf-studio-by-work-ac/Work Architecture Company have completed the headquarters for fashion label Diane von Furstenberg Studio in New York's Meatpacking District. A new structure was built between two protected facades and features a glazed rooftop lantern over an angled lightwell. Work aim to distribute more light into the building with a heliostat mirror hung in the skylight, […]

This building in New York City's Meatpacking district serves as the new headquarters for Diane von Furstenberg Studio, a fashion design company. The project retains the landmarked facades of two existing buildings, behind which a new six-story structure has been built. The building houses the company's New York store, a 5,000 SF showroom, design and administrative offices and an executive suite.

The project's diverse program is unified through a singular iconic gesture: a stairway that collects and distributes light from the roof through to the deepest interior parts of the building. This shaft of light is conceived of as an inhabitable and connective "stairdelier" — a cross between stair and chandelier. The guardrail will be created from vertical cables, between which will be strung glass crystals provided by Swarovski. A heliostat mirror will track the sun throughout the day and focus light on the crystals, spreading natural light across the ceiling of each floor.

The stairdelier culminates at the roof in the "diamond" a faceted conference room and design studio that also functions as an identifiable beacon to the neighborhood. A series of three double-height spaces follow the stairdelier as it makes its way through the building, providing special variety to the relatively generic office floors.

The theme of the project is flexibility — the publicly accessible floors are all designed to transform for special events, parties, and performances. Pivoting walls allow the store to open up to the lobby in an extension of the public space. The lobby itself contains a wide ceremonial stair, a reflecting pool and other opportunities for connection, people-watching and interaction.

The showroom display walls are designed as massive "steamer trunks" that are able to be fold closed with the clothes inside and either be used as display walls or stored away to create more space for events. A small multi-purpose theater space at the showroom level hosts both fashion and art events and performances.